In known fire alarm pull stations, a lever is provided which can be manually pivoted or depressed to set off a local or centralized fire alarm. Such fire alarms are typically present in buildings such as schools, hospitals, and the like The alarm pull stations mount on a wall and are typically color coded to be easily recognizable in an emergency.
Such pull stations are manufactured for example by Pittway Corpration, NOTIFIER division, such as model NBG-10 series Non-Coded Manual Fire Alarm Station, BGX-101L Addressable Manual Pull Station, BNG and BRG series Manual Fire Alarm Stations or LNG Double-Action Manual Fire Alarm Station.
To prevent vandalism or nuisance alarms involving such pull stations, the pull stations are configured to lock in place once the activation lever is depressed or otherwise placed in an alarm state. To reset a pull station, a key is required to release the lever to its initial, non-alarm state. Typically the pull station key is entrusted to a person of authority for a building, for example, or with fire department personnel.
Given long periods of time between alarm actuations, keys can become lost. Also, the person holding the key may be unavailable to reset the pull station.
There continues to be a need for lock mechanisms which, while secure, can be unlocked by a large group of people. Preferably such expanded capability could be provided at substantially the same cost as present locks and without requiring added space in the respective unit being secured.